Drones for Good

Conservation, medical delivery, disaster response — the missions where drones save the day.

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Nov 9

Last updated

Drone camera view of a lost dog and a search dog meeting in deep snow in northern New York during a thermal drone pet search.

Drones For Good

FCC Wants To Ban The Lost-Pet Drone CBS News Just Celebrated

CBS Evening News showed a $17,000 thermal drone finding lost dogs in Mission Viejo. The FCC wants that drone class off the market. Comments close Sept 2.

Haye KestelooAug 30

A heavy-lift cargo drone hangs in a gray sky above Devighat, Nepal, with a bundle of relief supplies suspended on a long line beneath it

Disaster Response

Nepal Asks Abroad For Cargo Drones As China Flies 47 Next Door

Nepal ran its first 220-pound cargo drone test four days after the flood and asked other countries for heavy-lift drones. China had 47 flying by Thursday.

Haye KestelooAug 30

Orange remote-controlled rescue USV powering through breaking surf under an overcast sky.

Search & Rescue

Jersey Shore Firefighters Buy $10,000 Rescue Robot as Lifeguards Leave

Harvey Cedars volunteers are training on the Dolphin 3, a remote-controlled rescue craft that runs 15 mph, before the island drops to two guarded beaches.

Haye KestelooAug 28

A man stands in a dry mountain valley field beside a large orange-and-black multirotor drone fitted with atmospheric sensors.

Technology

Rainmaker Says Its Drones Made 143M Gallons of Rain. Florida Calls Cloud Seeding a Felony

Western states are spending millions on cloud seeding. The one drone operator in the boom faces two state felony bans and a stalled FAA flare petition.

Haye KestelooAug 24

Quadcopter delivery drone with a red-and-yellow chevron-marked cargo box flying against an overcast sky

WHOLE BLOOD

Hillsborough County Hasn't Voted on Its Blood Drone Program Yet

Hillsborough County commissioners decide September 2 whether the nation's first EMS whole blood drone program flies in October. The wire coverage already calls it launched.

Haye KestelooAug 18

Yellow quadcopter delivery drone hovering against a clear sky while lowering a white parcel box on a winch line

Drones for Good

Everdrone AED Drone Beats the Ambulance in Sweden, and a Bystander Restarts a Man's Heart

An Everdrone drone delivered a defibrillator before the ambulance at a Borås cardiac arrest. A bystander shocked the man's heart back, and he survived.

Haye KestelooAug 7

Map of Washington state and southern British Columbia showing clusters of red and orange wildfire hotspots alongside a dense blue fan of tracked aircraft flight paths radiating from the Seattle area

Unmanned Firefighting

Wildfire Fighting's Future Is Unmanned: Find The Fire From Orbit, Kill It Before Minute 30

Satellites that spot a classroom-sized fire and pilotless water bombers like Marcos Aerospace's Quencher point one way: the first 30 minutes of a wildfire belong to unmanned aircraft.

Haye KestelooAug 7

Police

NSW PolAir Remote Drone Finds Hidden Woman In Moree

A PolAir Remote drone flown from Bankstown Airport — 300 miles away — spotted a woman leaving a shed during a welfare check in Moree, leading to her arrest for breaching a domestic violence order. Australia's first remotely piloted police drone trial keeps converting flights into arrests.

Rafael SuárezAug 6

Drones for Good

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.